From 1939 to 1945, the Royal Indian Navy fought on the high seas in the greatest conflict in human history. In this episode, Commodore Odakkal Johnson, director of the Maritime History Society joins Aditya Ramanathan and Aditya Pareek to talk about the Royal Indian Navy’s exploits and its legacy. Commodore Odakkal Johnson’s Book: (https://amzn.to/3kO59sD)

The Internet in India is governed by the IT Act. But the powers this law gives the state need to be balanced with due process and adequate safeguards. Rohan Seth and Prateek Waghre are joined by Gopal Jain, a Supreme Court advocate and advisor to the Esya Centre to talk about reforming the IT Act […]

Recent Pentagon reports indicate that China is quickly leveling the scales against the US by building up its military. New frontiers in military technology are constantly being pushed, from hypersonic missiles to satellite-based systems. Aditya Ramanathan and Anirudh Kanisetti take a step back to understand the phenomenon of military revolutions and how they’ve shaped global […]

At the end of a recently held Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council meeting, the finance minister signalled the Union government’s inability to pay compensation to the states, describing the revenue shortfall as an ‘Act of God’ caused by the pandemic. The Union abdicating its responsibility and leaving the states on its own is problematic on many […]

Download the Discussion Document in PDF This document provides an assessment of China’s changing approach towards the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic’s impact on China’s and the world economy along with the intensification of geopolitical tensions between China and the US have amplified certain pre-existing risks while also creating […]

India’s national and state/city level serosurveys have come up with concerning results. The disparity between the estimated number of cases based on seroprevalence and the actual number of cases reported is, in some cases, nearly 500 to 600 times off the mark, with serious implications on our knowledge of how the pandemic is spreading and […]

Ever since Xi Jinping assumed power in China in late 2012, concerns about domestic stability, external challenges, and the resilience of Party rule have led to the building of a national security state. How has the Chinese constructed this apparatus? What role do the anti-corruption and rectification campaigns play? Aditya Ramanathan speaks to Suyash Desai […]

This newsletter is really a weekly public policy thought-letter. While excellent newsletters on specific themes within public policy already exist, this thought-letter is about frameworks, mental models, and key ideas that will hopefully help you think about any public policy problem in imaginative ways. It seeks to answer just one question: how do I think about a […]

Pooja Bhatt’s latest book Nine Dash Line: Deciphering the South China Sea Conundrum was reviewed by Manoj Kewalramani for the The Book Review Literary Trust. The review can be accessed here.

Eye on China is a weekly bulletin offering news and analysis related to the Middle Kingdom from an Indian interests perspective. I. India-China Ties It’s increasingly clear that the India-China standoff in Eastern Ladakh is now going to continue for the long haul, unless of course, things get worse before winter sets in. Reuters reports that the […]

This article was first published in Deccan Herald. Views are personal. Earlier this week, I decided to scratch an itch that had been bothering me for a while. I took out some time in my calendar after work, dimmed the lights in my room, opened Netflix and started playing Main Hoon Na. I was halfway […]

This article was first published in Deccan Chronicle. Views are personal. Listening to Pivot podcast earlier this week, I came across this quote from Professor Scott Galloway, “Nvidia is the most impressive company you have never heard of”. Up until last week, I would have argued that you could make a stronger case for this […]

I. The Big Story: The Sino-Indian Border Dispute Multiple things have happened along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) between China and India since the newsletter was last published two weeks back. This issue highlights the events between the two countries since August 31. 1. India’s first reported offensive in the current stand-off The India armed […]

Download the Discussion Document in PDF By Ananya Rao This discussion document examines the assimilation of inter-state migrants in India into their host societies and the factors that facilitate and impede this process. While migrant workers face exclusion in urban centres due to a lack of access to basic services and social security and welfare […]

Three months ago when Parliament was not in session, the Government of India issued three ordinances. Normally ordinances are issued only as an emergency law, and they have to be converted into proper legislation as soon as Parliament reconvenes. These three ordinances were about agriculture and farming. All three were in the spirit of ‘reforms’, […]

Do statues, monuments and buildings represent history? Or just the preoccupations of those that erected them? Should statues of problematic figures be taken down? Anirudh Kanisetti and Aditya Ramanathan join Manoj Kewalramani to debate the vexed questions around the commemoration of the history and the modern politics of statues.

This newsletter is published at techpolicy.substack.com An excerpt from Edition 19 is reproduced below. The State of Information Disorder Responses Ok, let’s dive in. I’ve been spending some time trying to understand how various countries (~30) around the world are responding to information disorder online. Specifically Where they perceive the threat comes from? – What legislative […]

CIB or Coordinated Inauthentic Behaviour is a precise-sounding term that remains imprecise. As the recent Buzzfeed exposé on Facebook highlights, platform action against such activities is often subjective and haphazard. How are narratives manipulated on platforms? How can platforms address this? What could be the consequences? Manoj Kewalramani discusses with Rohan Seth and Prateek Waghre. […]

Opportunity cost is the value of the next best alternative that is foregone when exercising a particular option. Any good public policy needs to take this into account, to avoid an inefficient allocation of scarce resources. Pranay Kotasthane and Sarthak Pradhan discuss the concept of opportunity cost neglect and its public policy implications across sectors. […]

Once a safe and effective vaccine for COVID-19 is available, who should get inoculated first? And how will India vaccinate at least 800 million of its citizens? Shambhavi Naik and Ameya Paleja discuss their new vaccine strategy with Anirudh Kanisetti.

There is now an abundance of analysis and commentary around the world on how countries should respond to challenges posed by China. East Asian countries are concerned about China’s aggressive military moves in the South China Sea, across the Taiwan Straits and the Sea of Japan. India is concerned about Chinese moves along the Himalayan border, across […]

The economy shrank by nearly one-fourth during the first three months of this fiscal year. Much of this was due to the harsh lockdown initiated in March. Roughly three-fourths of the economy was practically shut for a month, after which there were a series of renewed lockdowns with partial relaxations. For this quarter, the economy […]

Is the joint statement between India and China on 10th September a sign that the two sides are finding a way to end their standoff on the LAC? Manoj Kewalramani and Suyash Desai join Aditya Ramanathan to analyse the ground situation, the diplomatic maneuvers, and the prospects for defusing the ongoing crisis.

Manoj Kewalramani and Suyash Desai were featured on The National Bureau of Asian Research’s Asia Insight podcast, discussing the India-China relationship and the argument for India to emerge as a swing state amid the Sino-US rivalry. You can listen to the full episode here.

Eye on China is a weekly bulletin offering news and analysis related to the Middle Kingdom from an Indian interests perspective. I. Firing & Five-point Plan It’s been a week of back and forth in the India-China relationship. The week began with a series of alarming events. China’s Western Theatre Command spokesperson Zhang Shuili said (Mandarin statement) […]

Pranay was on The BridgeProject podcast to talk about Pakistan’s strategy of sub-conventional warfare and India’s likely response options. Listen to the full episode here:

India Policy Watch #1: Consumption And The Fable Of Bees Insights on burning policy issues in India — RSJ ‘The pandemic has shown us what is truly important in our lives.’ ‘We learnt to go slow and consume only that we need during the lockdown. That’s one lesson we should follow beyond the pandemic.’ ‘The earth […]

In a development that attracted relatively little international attention, Xi Jinping unveiled the Communist Party of China’s (CPC’s) new policy towards Tibet at a conclave in late August. As my colleague Manoj Kewalramani explained in the Hindustan Times last week, Xi’s new strategy “entails a mix of persuasion, development, connectivity, indoctrination and coercion”. Beijing intends […]

This article was first published in Deccan Chronicle. Views are personal. The most exciting aspect of looking at tech policy is the sheer amount of sectors it intersects with. Given the nature of the pandemic, more of our world has moved online than ever before, and will continue to do so in the coming months. […]

The economy is in a deep hole, having contracted by one-fourth in the first three months of the lockdown. Hopefully the speed of contraction is slowing, but we will be lucky to see positive growth of the economy before December. So what is to be done? Everyone is crying hoarse for a fiscal stimulus. There […]

India is on a trajectory to induct a significant number of both nuclear-propelled and nuclear-armed submarines in the coming years. However, the mainstay of its sub-surface fleet remains conventionally powered diesel-electric submarines. With eight Russian-origin Sindhughosh(Kilo) class vessels making up the most potent portion of its submarine fleet, it makes sense for India to choose […]

The Imjin War of the late sixteenth century changed the fates of Japan, Korea, and China. But what was it all about? And why does it have such a powerful grip on modern imaginations? Anirudh Kanisetti and Aditya Pareek join Aditya Ramanathan to discuss what modern scholarship tells us about this pivotal conflict.

It appears that a vaccine(s) is the only way to stop COVID-19 and return the world to some semblance of normalcy. As the race inches to a close, everybody is waiting for their turn to get the vaccine and go meet their friends for a cup of coffee. However, there are several scientific hurdles that […]

This newsletter is published at techpolicy.substack.com An excerpt from Edition 18 is reproduced below. Of Freeing the Republic, Social Disasters, Polarisation and QAnfluencers Free The Republic? It turns out that the Maharashtra Police arrested 3 people, 2 of whom happened to be journalists with Republic TV. For all my ranting about Twitter trends, buried in work, I only […]

Reports suggest that India is looking to formulate guidelines for consistent content moderation across social media platforms. What triggered this development? Is it better than the status quo? Will uniform rules lead to content cartels? Rohan Seth and Prateek Waghre join Sowmya Nanadan to discuss.

Broadening of the India-China standoff into multiple theatres will present formidable challenges for Chinese forces All eyes are on the meeting between Indian external affairs minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart on September 10 in Moscow, nevertheless, it has increasingly become clear over the past few weeks that the two countries are preparing for […]

As India struggles with the COVID19 pandemic, questions about the capacity of the state have come to the forefront. What are the factors which influence state capacity? What can we do to bolster it? Policy wonks Shruthi Badri and Rachit Seth talk to Sarthak Pradhan on the current scenario and possible solutions to improve it.

Download the Discussion SlideDoc in PDF by Shambhavi Naik, Ameya Paleja, Mihir Mahajan, Narayan Ramachandran, Sunila Dixit, Rahul Matthan, Nitin Pai and Pranay Kotasthane India should aim to vaccinate 80% of the population by 31st December 2021. There are 4 steps in vaccine deployment: estimate demand, secure vaccine supply, choose delivery channels and conduct post-market […]

The new National Health Data Management Policy creates a framework for collecting citizens’ medical data. Sunila Dixit, Shambhavi Naik, and Prateek Waghre discuss the provisions of this policy, and what it means for health and privacy.

As the Narendra Modi government’s National Expert Committee on Vaccine Administration deliberates on a vaccination strategy against Covid-19, the single biggest thing it should be wary of is status quo-ism packaged as pragmatism. One thing India is not short of are people who can tell you why something cannot be done. We are now being told that […]

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent remarks at the seventh Central Symposium on Tibet Work indicate that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is doubling down on its hardline approach in the region, which evolved gradually after the 2008 protests. The strategy for the next few years that Xi outlined entails a mix of persuasion, development, connectivity, […]

The Pentagon’s 2020 China Military Power report emphasizes the advances made by the Chinese armed forces towards achieving “world-class” force status. Manoj Kewalramani speaks to Suyash Desai to get a breakdown of the key aspects covered in the report.

Eye on China is a weekly bulletin offering news and analysis related to the Middle Kingdom from an Indian interests perspective. I. Fresh LAC Tensions This week saw a shift in the situation at the India-China border, with a series of events playing out between August 29 and 31. Let’s first unpack what happened on […]

This article was first published in Deccan Chronicle. Views are personal. Earlier this week, Economic Times (ET) broke the story that top officials had begun preliminary discussions on whether India should have its own guidelines on content moderation. What always strikes me when I read news around this subject is that consensus around platform moderation […]

The ongoing situation on the Sino-Indian border offers a unique opportunity for the military leadership. They could impel the political leadership to facilitate the formulation of a military strategy despite the lack of an overarching National Security Strategy. Militarily, let there now be no doubt that countering China should be the primary focus of our […]

This newsletter is really a weekly public policy thought-letter. While excellent newsletters on specific themes within public policy already exist, this thought-letter is about frameworks, mental models, and key ideas that will hopefully help you think about any public policy problem in imaginative ways. It seeks to answer just one question: how do I think about a […]

This newsletter is published at techpolicy.substack.com An excerpt from Edition 17 is reproduced below. Of Bricks in the firewall, UnTrend, I C BATMAN and the Information Disorder World Cup. Hate is Trending, Trends are Not Hey Prateek – you spoke about hate just last week! Well, sorry, I did tell you it was unlimited, didn’t I? […]

I. DOD’s China Military Power Report Breakdown The Pentagon’s 2020 China Military Power report is possibly the longest since the inception of the annual report series in 2000. As Chad Sbragia, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for China in the Indo-Pacific Division claimed, “The report has taken on particular importance as the DOD continues to address the strategic […]

The GDP numbers are out. These refer to the three months from April to June, which were mostly about a harsh  lockdown. More than three-fourths of the economy was shut down at least for a month, and hence output, income, jobs were lost. The contraction in India’s GDP was the most acute among the top […]

Download the advisory in PDF by PM Heblikar, Aditya Ramanathan, Pranay Kotasthane Proposal Supplement existing police manpower resources by inducting state government employees who are involved in preventive, regulative, investigative, and implementation work. The objective is to enable the police department to carry out its primary functions effectively and remain at the forefront of COVID-19 […]

The United Nations has released its first-ever guidelines on making justice systems more accessible to people with disabilities. India has the Right to Persons with Disabilities Act 2016, but its implementation is patchy. Sowmya Nandan talks to Sunila Dixit about the UN guidelines and how they contrast with the realities that the disabled face in […]

As the Indian economy struggles with the aftermath of lockdowns and preexisting problems, COVID-19 has now spread across the length and breadth of the country. One of the most serious consequences of the pandemic is the way it has impacted women: India already had one of the world’s lowest female labour force participation rates, which […]

This article appeared in TheWire. Over last weekend, hashtags such as SwedenRiots, NorwayRiots and WeAreWithSweden were trending on Twitter in India. This may have seemed surprising, but if anyone spent a few minutes looking at the content that was being shared, it became painfully obvious why this was happening. A cursory Twitter search showed that many accounts which typically share […]

The pandemic has transformed attitudes towards public spaces like schools, movie theatres, and offices. When can these return to normalcy? And how? Rohan Seth talks to Shambhavi Naik to better understand the state of play and is later joined by Yatin K Thakur from the Indian Workspace Association to understand the impact the pandemic has […]

Many people were upset last week that NDTV 24×7— even NDTV — decided that secularism ought to be a topic of debate. Amid the prevailing climate of deep political polarisation, prejudice and suspicion, some saw this debate segment, which asked panelists whether “Secularism Is Essential To Democracy”,as a sign that this media house, too, was […]

The past week has been dominated by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s remark  alluding to an “act of God”. She was referring to the Covid-19 pandemic which is now seen as the main cause of the unprecedented recession in India and the world. Never mind that the slowing of GDP growth, or investment ratio or the stagnation of […]

As India’s relations with China deteriorate, what sort of ties should it seek with the United States? Lt General Prakash Menon talks to Suyash Desai and Aditya Ramanathan about the way ahead.

This newsletter is really a weekly public policy thought-letter. While excellent newsletters on specific themes within public policy already exist, this thought-letter is about frameworks, mental models, and key ideas that will hopefully help you think about any public policy problem in imaginative ways. It seeks to answer just one question: how do I think about a […]

It is becoming clear that the ongoing “tech war” between the United States and China is taking place along five fronts: semiconductors, network infrastructure, operating systems, platforms and content. While it was Beijing that first erected a defensive Great Firewall around its internet users over 25 years ago to censor content, it is now Washington […]

Eye on China is a weekly bulletin offering news and analysis related to the Middle Kingdom from an Indian interests perspective. I. India-China Ties This week India’s MEA shared details about the 18th round of talks under the Working Mechanism for Consultation & Coordination on India-China Border Affairs. The MEA said that “both sides have reaffirmed that […]

This article was first published in Deccan Chronicle. One of the most important features of tech policy is the sheer number of disciplines it intersects with. With the pandemic getting worse, in India, we have gone back and forth on locking down areas to stop the spread of the virus. Over the past few weeks, […]

Sometimes it feels as if the Supreme Court is running the country. Otherwise why does everything escalate all the way? The SC’s main job is to examine constitutional issues, but it is often and increasingly embroiled in commercial disputes. For instance, an engineering company in Chennai had registered the trademark ‘Coronil’ back in 1993, as an industrial […]

This newsletter is published at techpolicy.substack.com An excerpt from Edition 16 is reproduced below. Of Amplification Mechanics, Disinformationception, WHO let the bad advice out and Asides Hate Unlimited and Mechanics of Amplification The Negative Positive Loop Many years ago, I read an article that..er…spoke to me. I couldn’t find the link (thanks google algorithm that […]

From the 14th to the 17th centuries, the Sultanates of the Deccan embarked on a remarkable experiment in globalisation and regionalisation. This is reflected in their art, politics, and culture, but especially in their language. Independent researcher and journalist Karthik Malli joins Anirudh Kanisetti for a wide-ranging conversation in the vibrant history of the Dakhni […]

Serosurveys conducted in Mumbai, Delhi, and Pune have thrown up some interesting findings on the possible scale of COVID-19 infection in India, showing a huge difference between the prevalence of infected persons and the number of confirmed cases. Sowmya talks to Shambhavi and Sunila about these findings and what their implications could be.

This newsletter is really a public policy thought-letter. While excellent newsletters on specific themes within public policy already exist, this thought-letter is about frameworks, mental models, and key ideas that will hopefully help you think about any public policy problem in imaginative ways. It seeks to answer just one question: how do I think about a particular […]

Labour laws in India are complex and rigid. In the last few months, several state governments have announced changes to these old rules. But are the steps in the right direction? Anupam Manur and Sarthak Pradhan discuss.

In a forty-one page order, The Competition Commission of India (CCI) last week ruled on an antitrust case on WhatsApp’s upcoming payments service. The order raised several crucial points, including the timing of the case and the current landscape of the Indian UPI payments space. Rohan Seth discusses the decision to rule in favour of […]

he Indian Ocean island nation of Mauritius is facing one of its most serious crises in its modern history. On 21 July, around a week into its voyage from Singapore to the Brazilian port of Tubarao, the MV Wakashio, a 300-metre long bulk carrier, owned and operated by Japanese companies, deviated from its course and […]

This newsletter is really a weekly public policy thought-letter. While excellent newsletters on specific themes within public policy already exist, this thought-letter is about frameworks, mental models, and key ideas that will hopefully help you think about any public policy problem in imaginative ways. It seeks to answer just one question: how do I think about a […]

Public discourse often attempts to explain the actions of nation-states through “civilisational worldviews”. China, for example, is believed to have a “Middle Kingdom” approach to foreign policy, while some claim that India’s foreign policy follows in the footsteps of Kautilya’s Arthashastra. But is that really the case? Do nation-states develop foreign policies drawing on the […]

This article was first published in Deccan Chronicle. Views are personal. Around 10 years ago, back when the Blackberry Messenger (BBM) was still prevalent, I remember trying to persuade a friend of mine to get himself a Blackberry phone so that we could chat on BBM. He countered me saying that WhatsApp (emerging at the […]

In December 2015 the founder and Chief Executive of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, wrote passionately in The Times of India why it was important to give free access to internet. He was promoting the idea of ‘Free Basics’ launched by Facebook. It would give free access to basic internet services to all Indians. No charge would […]

This newsletter is published at techpolicy.substack.com. The following is an excerpt from Edition 14. Go here for the complete edition Of Oxygen, Amplification, You Are Under Arrest, Plandemic Returns and You Can’t Stop This. Mask, No Mask and The Oxygen of Amplification I can see what’s happening? What? And we don’t have a clue Who?? We keep doing […]

I. The Big Story: The Sino-Indian Dispute: Military-Diplomatic Updates Plus Nuclear Relations There is no major diplomatic or military-diplomatic breakthrough on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) as the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and India are still engaged in a stand-off on at least three points at the disputed border. The Working Mechanism for Consultation […]

Stuck in the trenches of the Western Front in Europe, a soldier named Mir Mast took a very important decision that sent him on a remarkable journey through the 20th century world. Involving family honour, espionage, and royals from Germany to Afghanistan, his life provides a fascinating insight into colonial India before the rise of […]

My grandmother bravely fought, but eventually lost her battle with breast cancer. Those childhood memories inspired me to take up a career focused on curing cancer. After spending a decade across 3 laboratories trying to kill cancer cells in petri dishes, I chose to leave academia. I loved every single moment at the lab bench. […]

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare suffers from a lack of clear division of responsibilities, a platform for inter-sectoral coordination and conflicts of interest. These weaknesses have become more apparent in the light of the pandemic, as the public health response has been anchored in the ICMR, which is primarily a research body. India […]

It came as a surprise but it is not surprising. When the United Arab Emirates and Israel announced that they would establish normal relations with each other, in a US-brokered agreement last week, they publicly accepted what has been obvious for several years now — that the national interests of the Emirates along with those […]

Download the Discussion Document in PDF India needs a new public health system, housed within the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to streamline functions, improve transparency in operations, and ensure better health outcomes. This document proposes a governance architecture structured around essential public health functions to ensure there is no conflict of interest/overlapping functions. […]

While a wet market in Wuhan has become notorious for being the likely place of origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, some of India’s own wet markets are plagued by problems like unhygienic conditions and the sale of endangered species. How can they be regulated? Shambhavi Naik and Sarthak Pradhan talk to Aditya Ramanathan.

Geographies and domestic politics have a profound impact on how big tech operates. This is evident when we examine the stance tech companies have taken on racial justice issues in the US, compared to protests in Hong Kong or intermediary liability in Pakistan. Anirudh Kanisetti talks to Prateek Waghre and Rohan Seth to understand what […]

The standoff in Eastern Ladakh has led to a number of calls for India to deepen the relationship with Taiwan. In this episode, Manoj Kewalramani speaks to Sana Hashmi, Taiwan Fellow at the Institute of International Relations, National Chengchi University, about the history and future of India’s engagement with Taiwan. Sana Hashmi’s recent writings: https://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/it-is-time-for-india-to-invest-in-ties-with-taiwan/story-HCNTqDMTDEk4WazS3aqKmJ.html […]

Almost a year ago, this column had warned that the economic slowdown that India was experiencing would have a negative impact on India’s geopolitical standing, because it is “presumptuous to expect countries and companies to be sympathetic to India’s political interests if they do not see an economic upside”. “Sheer momentum will allow Indian foreign […]

This newsletter is really a weekly public policy thought-letter. While excellent newsletters on specific themes within public policy already exist, this thought-letter is about frameworks, mental models, and key ideas that will hopefully help you think about any public policy problem in imaginative ways. It seeks to answer just one question: how do I think about a […]

This article was first published in Deccan Chronicle. Views are personal. In case you have been following the news, developments around TikTok are hard to look away from. The app has been associated with Twitter, Apple, and Microsoft. Closer home, reports have surfaced claiming that ByteDance is in talks with Reliance for investment in the […]

This newsletter is published at techpolicy.substack.com. The following is an excerpt from Edition 14. Go here for the complete edition Of Things that aren’t there, Midinformation, Belarus and Twitter offices Things that aren’t there The fans that weren’t and the laws that aren’t Earlier this week, Mumbai Mirror carried a story about Badshah alias Aditya Prateek Singh Sisodia (turns out that […]

I. The Big Story: 100 Days of The Sino-Indian Stand-off The Sino-Indian stand-off completed 100 days on Thursday, August 13. But there is no significant progress made on disengagement and de-escalation, especially since the past month or more. The PLA is still on the Indian-side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) at Pangong Tso and […]

It is our 74th Independence Day. What is the uppermost thought on this day? It is of freedom. What kind of freedom? It is freedom to speak, to think, to express an opinion, to assemble as a group (without arms), to roam the country, to earn a living. After we gained independence from our colonial […]

The recorded history of Bengaluru, one of India’s most dynamic cities, goes back well over a thousand years. However, it’s a past that offers us only the most tantalising glimpses – through hero stones, inscriptions, and elegant temples. Anirudh Kanisetti joins Aditya Ramanathan to provide us a vivid retelling of this history from the Chalukyas […]

COVID-19 has worsened the problem of malnutrition in India because it has disrupted two critical programmes: the ICDS and Mid-Day Meal Scheme. However, after initial setbacks, the Union and state governments, with support from the World Food Programme (WFP), have worked to ensure food is delivered to those that need it the most. Sunila Dixit […]

Military history often knocks on contemporary doors. Galwan, Kongka La, and Pangong Tso that were areas of military contestations in 1962, with Depsang also thrown in, are emblematic of the present Sino-Indian border crisis. It was HG Wells who said, “If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.” India doesn’t seem to have learnt this […]

 The 2017 India-China standoff in Doklam, at a crucial trijunction between India, China, and Bhutan, was widely hailed as a victory for India. But China has not respected the status quo in areas contiguous to the face-off site. What really happened in 2017, and what has happened since then? What implications does this have […]

Agricultural markets in India have long been characterized by multiple trade barriers and uncompetitive policies. The Union government has passed three ordinances permitting trade outside the physical boundaries of the Agricultural Produce Market Committees, facilitating contract farming and easing restrictions under the Essential Commodities Act. Sarthak Pradhan and Anupam Manur analyze the potential impact of […]

When will the coronavirus pandemic come to an end? The question is on everyone’s mind, and while astrologers and politicians have answers, few scientists want to be drawn into hazarding a prediction. According to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan’s recent remarks, the spread of coronavirus has already been contained in India because “half the total cases are from three states only and another […]

Facial recognition technology and its applications have been advancing, even in the absence of adequate privacy laws. Facial data is personal, sensitive, and potentially permanent – and it is being used for a wide range of applications in India and around the world. But are we addressing the challenges that come with this technology? Anushka […]

Amid the standoff at the LAC, the Indian government is reportedly reviewing the work of Confucius Institutes in the country. These institutes have come under increasing scrutiny around the world over the past few years. But what do we know about their operations? Is a crackdown in India warranted? And what could be the consequences? […]

Eye on China is a weekly bulletin offering news and analysis related to the Middle Kingdom from an Indian interests perspective. I. India-China Ties Another week and the standoff at the LAC continues. But some of the comments and leaked reports this week suggest to me at least that the military and diplomatic conversations that […]

This article was first published in Deccan Chronicle. Views are personal. In September 2019, the Indian Government formed a committee chaired by Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan to look at the regulation for non-personal data. The committee recently came out with a governance framework, comments to which can be submitted by August 13. As far as […]

The Bhakra Dam in Himachal Pradesh, on the River Sutlej, is one of the largest gravity dams in the world. The reservoir it creates, spread over 168 square kilometres, is the third largest in India. The waters of Bhakra provide irrigation for 10 million acres of agricultural land across Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. It also […]

I. Sino-Indian Border Dispute: Military Talks Hit Roadblock The fifth round of Corp Commander-level talks between India and the People’s Republic of China (PRC), which began this Sunday, ended in a stalemate. The meeting, which took place on the Chinese side of Chushul-Moldo Border, continued until the late evening. The Pangong Tso, where the Chinese have […]

This newsletter is published at techpolicy.substack.com. The following is an excerpt from Edition 13. Go here for the complete edition Of Muddied Water, Explosions, The Big QAn(o)on(A) and New Twiplomacy MisdisMal-Information Edition 13 The Beirut Explosion The explosion in Beirut once again reminded that in additional to the loss of lives and property, accurate information […]

Are Indian cities equal spaces for everyone? Do social expectations determine how accepting an urban space is to people of different genders? What do gender relations in our homes have to do with the way we live in cities? Anirudh Kanisetti speaks to Roshni Kannan of CEPT Ahmedabad to find out.

The technology to modify the human genome is here, potentially signaling a transformation of societies and economies. In the light of WHO’s draft framework on governing human gene editing, Anirudh and Shambhavi discuss the ethical dilemmas, scientific challenges, and opportunities in store, and what India needs to do about them.

Bhavitha B is a student at Takshashila’s GCPP (Tech and Policy) Programme. Views are personal. Toddlers, however dependent they seem, most often do not surrender to terms of their parents, sometimes fight back and sometimes speak up in gurgles of sounds. Like gurgly toddlers who have learnt the power of words but are yet to […]

There was quite a bit of symbolism when the CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google appeared before the anti-trust committee of the House of Representatives of the US Congress last week. Here were the heads of the world’s most valuable companies, captains of the tech industry and some of the world’s richest men summoned to defend themselves before elected representatives […]

Tech clusters play a leading role in fostering innovation, creating jobs, and attracting investments. In this episode, Sarthak Pradhan and Pranay Kotasthane discuss what makes tech clusters work, whether we have them in India, and what governments can do to encourage them.

After several consultations on the draft National Education Policy 2019 with stakeholders in the education sector, the Government of India announced the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 on Wednesday, 29 June. The NEP 2020 envisages commendable changes in the way education will be delivered in India. It does so by emphasising on universal Early Childhood […]

Sundar Pichai, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim Cook, and Jeff Bezos attended an antitrust enquiry last week. The tech giants were grilled on issues ranging from anti-conservative bias to platform neutrality. The results of this enquiry may very well signal the beginning of the end for big tech as we know it. Anupam Manur and Rohan Seth […]

This newsletter is really a weekly public policy thought-letter. While excellent newsletters on specific themes within public policy already exist, this thought-letter is about frameworks, mental models, and key ideas that will hopefully help you think about any public policy problem in imaginative ways. It seeks to answer just one question: how do I think about a […]

While India and China are in talks to disengage in Eastern Ladakh, what are the long-term implications of the standoff for bilateral ties? Manoj Kewalramani talks to Ambassador Nirupama Rao and Lt. General Prakash Menon on the measures that India should adopt to ensure security and stability with regard to the China challenge.

This newsletter is published at techpolicy.substack.com What is this?This newsletter aims to track information disorder largely from an Indian perspective. It will also look at some global campaigns and research What this is not?A fact-check newsletter. There are organisations like Altnews, Boomlive etc who already do some great work. It may feature some of their fact-checks […]

This article was first published in Deccan Chronicle. Views are personal. This week gave us one of the most significant developments in antitrust that we have had in a long time. The CEOs of Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook publicly sat down for an antitrust inquiry. As a general principle, I try to stick to […]

Sometime over the next 12 months, a vaccine against COVID-19 is likely to be available. The task of administering it to few hundred million people—perhaps even over a billion—so that India acquires herd immunity appears daunting. That is, until you realise that India routinely carries out a task of the same scale and similar complexity […]

Eye on China is a weekly bulletin offering news and analysis related to the Middle Kingdom from an Indian interests perspective. I. India-China Ties As I write, Indian and Chinese military commanders are meeting in Moldo for the 5th round of talks. Prior to the talks, reports said that the Indian side will insist on […]

It hasn’t fought since 1979; it has been corrupt; it lacks skilled personnel; and it has financial issues The People’s Republic of China (PRC) will be celebrating the 93rd founding anniversary of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on August 1. Consolidated in 1927 during the Nanchang uprising by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), PLA was […]

I. The Big Story: The PLA @ 93 The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is turning 93 years old today (August 1, 2020). But the celebrations, unlike the past, are without much pomp, pageantry and promotions. President Xi Jinping has only promoted Xu Zhongbo, former political commissar of the PLA’s Joint Logistic Support Force (JLSF) this year. He is […]

Take one swig of this magic potion called education, and you will become invincible, like the Gauls of the Asterix comics. It is the secret to a better quality of life for yourself and family. It is also the foundation for sustained growth of the economy. Future growth will depend not so much on expanding […]

Download the Discussion Document in PDF This discussion document proposes a Military Resource Allocation Framework 1.0 (M-RAF 1.0) for the Indian Military. The M-RAF (1.0) is a derivative of the Proposed Theatre Command Model that could serve as a decision support tool for military resource allocation planning and can be adapted to any number of […]

The 2017 India-China standoff in Doklam, at a crucial trijunction between India, China, and Bhutan, was widely hailed as a victory for India. But was it? In the light of new satellite imagery, Anirudh Kanisetti speaks to Lt General Prakash Menon about India and China’s takeaways from the standoff, and how they continue to influence […]

The past few weeks have been tough for Huawei, as the UK and France have moved to reduce their dependence on it for their 5G networks. What’s prompted this change? Is India also likely to follow suit? Manoj Kewalramani and Pranay Kotasthane talk about recent developments and their implications.

Twitter’s recent hack has raised concerns about data protection. But would the current Indian Data Protection Bill, which is being reviewed by Parliament, have been effective in tackling these concerns? Manoj Kewalramani and Rohan Seth examine the fine print. Bill Summary: (https://www.prsindia.org/node/843845/chapters-at-a-glance) Check out Rohan’s article over here: (https://www.deccanchronicle.com/technology/in-other-news/180720/tech-this-week-the-personal-data-protection-bill-in-the-context-of-t.html)

Almost a month ago, the Ministry of Information Technology took the unprecedented step of banning 59 apps/services on the purported grounds that these services were prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India. At the time it was unclear what a ban entailed and how it would be implemented and/or enforced. However, the subsequent weeks […]

Why should India care about what happens in the polar regions? And why has it sought greater influence in Arctic governance? Aditya Ramanathan talks to Anirudh Kanisetti about India’s fascinating history of polar diplomacy.

If you purchased an iPhone 11 recently, chances are that you have in your hands a smartphone assembled in India. After over a year of speculation on whether or not Apple will assemble its top-of-the-line product from a factory in India, news emerged last week that the iPhone 11 has indeed been “Made in India” at […]

This newsletter is really a weekly public policy thought-letter. While excellent newsletters on specific themes within public policy already exist, this thought-letter is about frameworks, mental models, and key ideas that will hopefully help you think about any public policy problem in imaginative ways. It seeks to answer just one question: how do I think about a […]

There has been growing debate in recent times in India and other countries about China’s aggression. What’s driving Beijing to engage in contests on multiple fronts, be it Hong Kong, the near seas, or India, particularly amid a pandemic and economic weakness? Is it opportunism? Is it hubris? Is internal turmoil and insecurity leading to […]

In the Second World War, Japan tried to develop a whole class of submarines that worked as small aircraft carriers. Why did the idea not catch on after 1945? Why do some military innovations reach a dead-end? Anirudh Kanisettti and Aditya Ramanathan delve into this fascinating case study.

Eye on China is a weekly bulletin offering news and analysis related to the Middle Kingdom from an Indian interests perspective. I. India-China Ties Indian and Chinese military commanders are expected to engage in another round of talks in Eastern Ladakh, amid reports of “complete disengagement” in certain areas. ANI reports on Sunday that “troops of India […]

This article was first published in Deccan Chronicle. Views are personal. In an event that is set to send sparks flying throughout the global tech ecosystem, the CEOs of Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook have agreed to testify to the American Congress for an anti-trust inquiry. Even before the inquiry, there has been cynicism around […]

I. The Big Story: The Sino-Indian Border Dispute: No Further Disengagement; it’s a Long-haul Multiple reports have now indicated that there has been no further disengagement between China and India since the 4th Corps-commander level meeting on 14th July 2020. The complete disengagement has only taken place in two out of the four/five points, as the […]

Are economic development and environment preservation antithetical to one another? The clear answer is no. It is possible to have clean air and water, less pollution and still be a prosperous country. Indeed the evidence is compellingly on the other side. The hallmark of a developed country is when you can drink water from the […]

After booming sales over the past couple of months, dishwashers are in short supply in many Indian cities. The waiting period for some of the reputed brands is as long as two months. Dishwasher detergents have disappeared from supermarket shelves and online retailers. The Covid-19 pandemic has given the dishwasher its moment in India. If it leads to […]

Why do diaries written in times of tumult have such appeal to us even today? What place do they hold in history? Manoj Kewalramani and Ganesh Chakravarthi discuss how personal, anecdotal, and first person perspectives shape our understanding of the past.

 The South China Sea is an important waterway that connects east and south Asian countries to Europe and Africa. It is of great commercial importance to various countries. While all other countries are busy handling the pandemic, the country from where this COVID crisis started is busy in trying to make geopolitical gains in […]

Economic interdependence was supposed to bring peace but it also gives states the leverage they can use to coerce each other. Manoj Kewalramani talks to Pranay Kotasthane and Aditya Ramanathan about how economic coercion works and what lessons countries like India can learn.

Even as China seeks to enforce its territorial claims in the South China Sea, the United States has reacted strongly. What are China’s aims in the region? And how should India react? Suyash Desai and Manoj Kewalramani join Aditya Ramanathan to examine the current situation and discuss India’s role in it.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating effect on school education. But if schools can’t open, how can students continue their education in a country with limited Internet access? Takshashila’s Sunila Dixit talks to Prateek Waghre about some concrete steps authorities can take to get children back to learning.

India has no shortage of diagnostic labs but it isn’t testing enough people for COVID-19. To understand why, Takshashila’s Pranay Kotasthane talks to NIPFP researchers Harleen Kaur and Siddhartha Srivastava and molecular biologist Ameya Paleja about the complex regulatory and legal tangle around testing and what can be done about it.

This newsletter is really a weekly public policy thought-letter. While excellent newsletters on specific themes within public policy already exist, this thought-letter is about frameworks, mental models, and key ideas that will hopefully help you think about any public policy problem in imaginative ways. It seeks to answer just one question: how do I think about a […]

Eye on China is a weekly bulletin offering news and analysis related to the Middle Kingdom from an Indian interests perspective. I. The Slow Disengagement Ground Situation: Another week and another round of talks between Indian and Chinese military commanders, but disengagement is still some way away. What’s more, Beijing doesn’t seem to be saying much […]

My argument in these pages over the past month has been that India cannot deter Chinese expansionism in the Himalayas unless we show credible capacity to hurt China’s interests elsewhere in its contested neighbourhood where it is vulnerable. After the skirmishes of the past couple of months, Indian and Chinese troops are in a process […]

This article was first published in Deccan Chronicle. Views are personal. In case you have not been following the news, earlier this week, Twitter was the subject of a very public data breach. A lot of very high profile accounts were hacked, including Elon Musk, Barack Obama, and Apple. There is, of course, wider context […]

I. The Big Stories 1) The US’s “New Approach” to the South China Sea? The United States’ Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo, in his latest speech, unveiled the country’s “new position” for the South China Sea (SCS) dispute this week. It was followed by the assistant Secretary of State, David Stilwell’s, elaborate explanation during his […]

This newsletter is published at techpolicy.substack.com What is this?This newsletter aims to track information disorder largely from an Indian perspective. It will also look at some global campaigns and research What this is not?A fact-check newsletter. There are organisations like Altnews, Boomlive etc who already do some great work. It may feature some of their fact-checks […]

India introduced a tax on e-commerce companies in the February Union Budget. What’s unusual about it? Don’t all companies have to pay a tax on their profits? Yes, but this is about e-commerce companies, which do not have a permanent establishment in India. For tax purposes, they are non-residents and hence not subject to income […]

This article was first published in Deccan Herald. Views are personal. While the pandemic rages on, the Chinese leadership in Beijing has tightened its control over Hong Kong. Earlier in 2019, the region saw fierce protests take place regarding an extradition bill. Now, Chinese lawmakers have voted to adopt the Law of the People’s Republic […]

Rahul Verma is a former student of the GCPP (Tech and Policy) Programme. Views are personal. The full article can be accessed at The Tilak Chronicle. “International Surveillance Agency for Satellites” is an idea whose time has come. It has been rejected before and one of the main reasons for the refusal is the fact […]

The ICMR recently stoked controversy by asking hospitals to participate in clinical trials for developing a COVID-19 vaccine by August 15. Is this a realistic deadline? What does it tell us about the state of scientific research in India? How close are we, really, to a vaccine, and how will it be deployed? Anirudh Kanisetti […]

How do China’s public policy thinkers and strategic community view India’s rise? How did social media in China react to the Galwan clash? Delhi Policy Group’s Antara Ghosal Singh joins Takshashila’s Manoj Kewalramani to talk about her research into Chinese debates on the relationship with India.

Executive Summary In 2017, the Doklam plateau became a flashpoint for the Asian powers, India and China. China’s tactics in Doklam are clear examples of its general “salami-slicing” strategy, a policy of gradual encroachment onto disputed territory where other claimants are forced to accede to a new status quo tilted in China’s favour. This Discussion […]

This newsletter is really a public policy thought-letter. While excellent newsletters on specific themes within public policy already exist, this thought-letter is about frameworks, mental models, and key ideas that will hopefully help you think about any public policy problem in imaginative ways. It seeks to answer just one question: how do I think about a particular […]

Social media platforms, especially Facebook, have been facing an ad boycott from companies such as Unilever and Starbucks that are demanding they address concerns misinformation and hate speech online. Prateek Waghre and Rohan Seth go into the fine print of what’s happening and consider its unintended consequences.

With the COVID-19 pandemic’s requirement for social distancing, it will be difficult to physically reopen schools. When schools in Israel reopened, clusters of COVID-19 cases were reported from them and all schools had to be closed again. Thus, keeping schools closed is a wise option. The current situation has certainly increased the demand for virtual […]

As India considers its options to deter China along the LAC, some are pushing for a revival of the Mountain Strike Corps idea. But what is a Mountain Strike Corps? Why has it not taken shape for a decade? And is it the best way to tackle China in the Himalayas? Manoj Kewalramani speaks to […]

India cannot control the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic unless the governmental authorities stay in mission mode and get better at the ‘test, trace and isolate’ strategy, as I wrote in my column a couple of weeks ago. The first and most important part of the epidemic control strategy is testing, for only when you test lots of people and get […]

How has India’s judiciary functioned in India’s changing social conditions and political milieu? Are there differences in the way the Supreme Court, high courts, and district courts respond to these challenges? Alok Prasanna Kumar of the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy talks to Anirudh Kanisetti.

This newsletter is really a weekly public policy thought-letter. While excellent newsletters on specific themes within public policy already exist, this thought-letter is about frameworks, mental models, and key ideas that will hopefully help you think about any public policy problem in imaginative ways. It seeks to answer just one question: how do I think about a […]

Eye on China is a weekly bulletin offering news and analysis related to the Middle Kingdom from an Indian interests perspective. I. India-China Ties Much has happened through the week on the boundary in Eastern Ladakh and in terms of the broader trade and diplomatic relationship between India and China. As always, let’s look at […]

This article was first published in Deccan Chronicle. Views are personal. Over the last few years in tech policy, one thing has been clear. There is a strong tendency within the Government to view the data as a national asset, akin to say, the Indian Railways. This has been an inherent line of reasoning in […]

I. The Big Story: Disengagement Now and De-escalation Hopefully Soon? This week witnessed limited disengagement between the Indian Army and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) at multiple points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh. However, there is no word yet on the de-escalation of the troop build-up on both sides along the […]

The University Grants Commission is the top boss governing policies of all universities in India. It oversees about 800 universities encompassing about 40,000 colleges. Of these, 49 are central universities, i.e. run by funds from the central government, 367 are state universities run by state government funding and 123 are deemed universities, i.e. UGC has […]

Are there parallels between Turkish and Indian politics? Why has Turkey been drawn into the Middle East’s wars? And how do Turkey and India see each other? Journalist Madhuvanthi Srinivasan talks to Anirudh Kanisetti and Aditya Ramanathan about one of the region’s most powerful and fascinating countries.

By Shambhavi Naik Download this discussion document in PDF Executive Summary The rapidly spreading COVID-19 can be contained only with rapid, accurate testing and isolation of infected individuals. Various types of tests are available, but in India only select tests have been approved for diagnostic purposes. Testing can however be done for purposes beyond diagnosis. […]

Should India balance against China by drawing closer to the United States? Or should it adopt a more subtle strategy that allows it to keep its options open? Historian and strategist Zorawar Daulet Singh talks to Aditya Ramanathan and Suyash Desai about what India must do.

China is tightening its grip on Hong Kong through a new national security law. The law’s sweeping provisions give Beijing powers to crack down on political opposition both offline and online. Manoj Kewalramani, Suyash Desai, and Rohan Seth examine these dramatic developments.

Why are consumers paying more for their petrol and diesel when crude oil prices are low? What do the Union and state governments do to control prices at the pump? Who else benefits? Pranay Kotasthane and Utkarsh Narain discuss.

There is absolutely no doubt that the world needs a vaccine for the novel coronavirus or SARS-nCOV-2 fast and the country that acquires one first will not only secure health and economic benefits, but gain a geopolitical window of opportunity that it can exploit. For strategic reasons, therefore, I have previously argued that “India must accelerate efforts […]

Ayurvedic formulations touting to cure COVID-19 have raised questions both about their claims and the scientific rigour of their clinical trials. Prateek Waghre talks to Sunila Dixit and Shambhavi Naik about Patanjali’s Coronil “immunity booster” and lessons to learn from this episode.

This newsletter is really a weekly public policy thought-letter. While excellent newsletters on specific themes within public policy already exist, this thought-letter is about frameworks, mental models, and key ideas that will hopefully help you think about any public policy problem in imaginative ways. It seeks to answer just one question: how do I think about a […]

Had we not been so engrossed by the covid-19 pandemic and Chinese transgressions in the Himalayas, the Narendra Modi government’s deregulation of the space sector would have stood out as a structural, big-bang reform. You don’t have to be a breathless cheerleader of the government to appreciate, without exaggeration, that this is the most significant […]

This article was first published in Deccan Chronicle. Views are personal. This has been a busy week for the internet. Earlier this week, India banned TikTok (along with 58 other apps from China). This was followed by Airtel and Jio blocking access to DuckDuckGo (a privacy-first search engine). If we zoom out, there is a […]

Eye on China is a weekly bulletin offering news and analysis related to the Middle Kingdom from an Indian interests perspective. I. India-China Tensions Another extremely busy week with both sides digging their heels in Eastern Ladakh. First, there was another, the third so far, meeting between Lt Gen Harinder Singh and Major Gen Liu […]

This newsletter is published at techpolicy.substack.com What is this?This newsletter aims to track information disorder largely from an Indian perspective. It will also look at some global campaigns and research What this is not?A fact-check newsletter. There are organisations like Altnews, Boomlive etc who already do some great work. It may feature some of their fact-checks […]

The constitution of the United States does not recognise discrimination based on caste. It bars discrimination based on race, religion, gender, ethnic or national origin and even sexual orientation, but not on the basis of caste. Why so? Because caste as a category was unknown to the founders of the American republic. That is now […]

This article was first published in The Hindustan Times. The ongoing stand-off between the Indian and Chinese forces in eastern Ladakh is a fork in the road, fundamentally reshaping the direction of the bilateral relationship. Over the last few years, the architects of the gradual thaw and developing partnership between the two sides, which began […]

What’s it like to study politics and international relations in China? And how does India fit into the Chinese world view? Manoj Kewalramani speaks to Hamsini Hariharan, an analyst, and Yenching Scholar studying at Peking University, about life, politics, and academic freedom in China.

The Ladakh stand-off has boosted transparency, for it has given greater visibility to a species of information soldiers who could be described as ‘Satellite Warriors’. These individuals, who are mostly housed in either think tanks or media, are increasingly the main sources of satellite imagery, informing the Indian and international public about China’s military moves. […]

I. The Big Story: Five Important Updates from the Sino-Indian Dispute There are five critical updates this week related to the Sino-Indian border dispute. The round 3 of the Corps Commander-level meeting, military buildup on both sides along the LAC, India’s banning of the Chinese apps, economic backlash and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Leh. […]

The Government of India has banned 59 apps developed by Chinese companies – but what does it actually mean to “ban” an app? How will this affect tensions between India and China, and does banning ever really work? Anupam Manur and Prateek Waghre join Utkarsh Narain to discuss.

This newsletter is really a public policy thought-letter. While excellent newsletters on specific themes within public policy already exist, this thought-letter is about frameworks, mental models, and key ideas that will hopefully help you think about any public policy problem in imaginative ways. It seeks to answer just one question: how do I think about a particular […]

In 2013, during the Third Plenum of the18th Central Committee, it was announced by Xi Jinping that China would introduce widespread military reforms. This shift in policy came a year after Xi Jinping had succeeded Hu Jintao as General Secretary and at the beginning of his program of consolidating his faction’s hold over the Chinese […]

There’s been a growing debate in India about China’s influence in the Indian subcontinent. How has China’s role in the region evolved? What’s China been up to during the pandemic? And is a Sino-Indian contest inevitable in the region? Manoj Kewalramani speaks to Constantino Xavier of Brookings India and Shibani Mehta.

As the clock ticked towards 9 PM on the night of June 29, the talk of Internet in India was the Ministry of Electronics and IT’s press release indicating that 59 apps would be banned. The stated reason for this ban was that they were engaged in activities prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of […]

Had we not been so engrossed by the covid-19 pandemic and Chinese transgressions in the Himalayas, the Narendra Modi government’s deregulation of the space sector would have stood out as a structural, big-bang reform. You don’t have to be a breathless cheerleader of the government to appreciate, without exaggeration, that this is the most significant […]

I. The Big Story: Sino-Indian Border Tensions: Escalation or De-escalation? The Sino-Indian border dispute story has got even more cluttered as some Indian media reports indicate the Chinese presence on the Indian side of the LAC at Galwan and Depsang plains. While others have claimed that these are Indian structures and the Chinese are gradually withdrawing […]

Even as it tries to make sense of what happened in the Galwan Valley, India needs to make a serious reassessment of its policy towards China. In this episode, Nitin Pai and Manoj Kewalramani join Aditya Ramanathan to discuss the sources of Chinese conduct and India’s options.

How has the Chinese media reported the LAC standoff with India? Why has Chinese media not pushed for clarity on casualty figures from the Galwan clash? How has Chinese social media reacted to the tensions? Anirudh Kanisetti speaks to Manoj Kewalramani and Suyash Desai about all this and more.

This newsletter is really a weekly public policy thought-letter. While excellent newsletters on specific themes within public policy already exist, this thought-letter is about frameworks, mental models, and key ideas that will hopefully help you think about any public policy problem in imaginative ways. It seeks to answer just one question: how do I think about a […]

Eye on China is a weekly bulletin offering news and analysis related to the Middle Kingdom from an Indian interests perspective. I. The Standoff Continues Are both sides escalating at the LAC or are we deescalating? There’s official statements, OSINT contests, juvenile psyops and satellite imagery disagreements. It’s really the darndest thing. The more information that […]

Laws that Govern our Public Health Response to COVID-19  The on-going response to the COVID-19 outbreak in India has used lockdowns, quarantine measures and utilisation of apps for contact tracing. These policies have raised questions related to trade-offs between individual liberty and public health. Two laws which have been cited as providing legitimacy for the […]

This article was first published in Deccan Chronicle. In his book Super Pumped (a biography of Uber), Mike Isaac argues that App Store and Play Store give Apple and Google, respectively, the power to destroy multi-billion dollar companies. So when Travis Kalanick (then CEO of Uber) was charged with breaking some of the rules of App Store, […]

This article was first published in The Print. Even as scientists around the world struggle to come up with a vaccine for the coronavirus, Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurveda announced this week that it has developed a ‘cure’ for Covid-19. According to Ramdev, ‘Coronil and Swasari’ medicine has shown promising results and ‘cured’ all coronavirus patients not on ventilator support who […]

Pranay Kotasthane joins Vandit Jain from Lights, Camera, Azadi podcast to talk about economic nationalism and its unintended consequences. Listen to the episode here.

On April 20 there was an historic drop in oil prices in Texas. The price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude dropped all the way, not just to zero, but $37 below zero. That means the seller was giving money to the buyer to buy oil. Unthinkable and unprecedented. Since then oil prices have recovered […]

एक तरफ जहां दुनियाभर के वैज्ञानिक अभी कोरोनावायरस की वैक्सीन खोजने के लिए खासी मशक्कत कर रहे हैं, रामदेव की पतंजलि आयुर्वेद ने इसी हफ्ते घोषणा कर दी कि उसने कोविड-19 की ‘दवा’ बना ली है. रामदेव के मुताबिक, कोरोनिल और स्वासरी दवाओं के अच्छे नतीजे सामने आए हैं और इससे परीक्षण में शामिल ऐसे सभी […]

Daunting challenges stare at contemporary India. It is time for introspection and course correction that demands the highest quality of statecraft. According to Kautilya, knowledge is the bedrock of statecraft and foreign policy is crafted on the concept of ‘correlation of forces’, a metric which takes into account everything that determines relative power. So, how […]

By Prateek Waghre and Rohan Seth Download the Discussion Document in PDF. Executive Summary This Discussion Document analyses the responses of digital platforms to the information disorders around COVID-19: During the pandemic, digital platforms may be able to exercise greater discretion in content moderation from increased calls for them to act as arbiters of truth. […]

The 15 June clashes in the Galwan Valley have resulted in heightened military and political tensions between India and China. For a deeper insight into the developments, in this episode, Manoj Kewalramani speaks to three decorated Indian Army veterans — Lt General PJS Pannu, former Ladakh Corps Commander and Deputy Chief of the Integrated Defence […]

At an emergency cabinet meeting, the Prime Minister indicated that the border fighting did not constitute a threat to India. The strategic Chinese threat, he maintained, lies in the rapidly increasing industrial power base of China as well as the building of military bases in Tibet. The only Indian answer, he continued, is the most […]